Exploring other cities like Delhi, Bangalore to open new stores: Juvencio Maeztu, CEO, IKEA India

ET Now|

Updated: May 18, 2017, 04.31 PM IST

Ikea has invested Rs 1000 crores in its Mumbai store which will employ more than 2000 people, revealed Juvencio Maeztu.

IKEA India is exploring many other cities of India, CEO of the company,
Juvencio Maeztu
told
ET Now
.

Edited Excerpts:

You are set to open your second store in India in Mumbai. How are things going to pan out for you in the next five to seven years on a pan-India basis. Which are the states that you have already zeroed in. What is going to be a business roadmap look like?

This is our biggest store with about 4.3 lakhs square feet. We are talking about more than Rs 1000 crores investment. We are talking about more than 2000 employment later. So it is a big investment but because it is built to last and we are going to have long lasting relationship. We are committed with this level of investment. At the same time, we are now exploring other cities in the country like Delhi and Bangalore and from there we will keep growing in India.

In next five years, what is going to be your investment and what will be the number of stores that you are primarily targeting?

It depends. If we are talking about next year, it is Mumbai after Hyderabad. If we are talking about ten years, it would be more than 15-20 stores. If we talk about 100 years, it is many more.

In India, two things are happening at the same time that is why we feel so positive. On one side is the growth of the population, the growth of the youth, the growth of middle class and India is really moving from the society point of view in a fantastic direction. This you couple with the movement of this happening in all the reforms, all the policies, all the preconditions for companies to operate. So when you combine both, this is fantastic long lasting journey for all of us.

How big Indian market is going to be in your scheme of things perhaps in decade from now. How does it stand at this point of time and how it is going to pan out going forward?

IKEA has been sourcing in India for 30 years and 15 years ago we started the IKEA Foundation as well. So we have had a long relationship with India and today we source more than 300 million euros. With the development of retail, we are going to multiply our growth. There are new supplier coming up in the furniture side not only in the textile business and we are also developing the whole supplier base.